The Drum Hut
"SOMETHING REALLY DIFFERENT"
The Drum Hut is a unique drum tuition service which aims to help its students to get out there and play.
The Drum Hut also aims to help local Dorset musicians find drummers, with its free to use online drummers address book. If you're a drummer in Dorset looking to hook up with musicians, why not get in touch?
OUR LESSONS feature...A personal lesson planEvery lesson is recordedHome drum tuition Free* studio recording for every studentStudents invited into the drummers address book more>>
OUR LESSONS feature...
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THE DRUMMERS ADDRESS BOOK
WHAT
WE OFFER
STARTDRUMMING
Our Philosophy
The Drum Hut is about teaching, supporting, encouraging and challenging our students’ drumming, helping them to get out there and play.
We very much encourage creativity as a way of developing personal drum styles. Grades are not essential, but we can and do teach rudiments to all levels, as they are the building blocks to good drumming.
The Drum Hut believes that there’s more to drumming than endlessly practicing rudiments and beats. We believe that drumming is about being heard and playing live, performing in front of people, feeling the thrill and buzz of playing music.
Often teachers just teach the drums, The Drum Hut aims to put drumming into context.
Our tutors
Dan Lifton
Having successfully drummed throughout the UK and overseas as a session musician and currently playing with various bands across the South of England, Dan has developed a very eclectic musical taste and drumming style. Dan favours the funk genre, but is involved in musical projects from funk to folk, rock to jazz throughout the South.
Wez Benett
A highly successful drummer, specialising in rock and speed metal drumming, Wez has toured around Europe and is involved in numerous bands here in the UK. His style has been a focus point in all of the bands he plays in and is inspiring to watch and learn from.
About
BEGINNER
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
Overview of what's covered
Intro
The aim of this unit is to begin expanding and exploring playing the drums in a more complex and creative way.
Personality
Bringing style and personality to drumming is really important, so we’ll be looking at how we can bring this about in relation to the students preferred genre of music.
Technique and timing
We’ll start to expand your drumming skills by looking at technique and then build on this by playing more complex beats and fills with varying time signatures.
We’ll cover playing behind and in front of the beat to hear and feel the difference.
Paying close attention to timing, we’ll start to play along to some music of your choice and discuss how you could make the track ‘yours’ by adding your style to it.
Locking-in
We’ll analyse what’s being played and how it’s being played, we’ll then begin to ask why it’s being played like this, with the aim of introducing you to ‘locking in’ to the other instruments. Being aware of what others are playing and how they contribute to the overall sound is in many ways the most important part of being a drummer.
Taste
We’ll discuss ‘taste’ in relation to beats and fills and how to develop beats working with bass lines.
Recording
At this stage, The Drum Hut could record you playing the drums. It’s free and great fun. We’ll be using industry standard software so the recording will be very high quality.
You could choose to do a drum solo, or play along to a track of your choice. The recording gives you a chance to listen to yourself drum and will give you a great insight as to how to deal with recording. If you would like to be recorded, you will receive a CD of yourself drumming.
The challenge
At the end of the first lesson, your tutor will hand over a folder which is yours to keep, with some points for you to work towards for your next lesson.
We’ll add to the folder every lesson, so you should aim to bring it every lesson.
We would also have recorded your lesson with the MP3 recorder we issue to every student, helping you to remember what we've covered during the lesson.
Students will be proficient at playing their drums.
They will have very good control of their kit and will probably be in a band, gigging regularly. This unit aims to build on students as individuals.
Style and personality
You’ll know how to play your drums and will have a good idea of what style you like to play, so we’ll begin to look at your style and personality in your playing, identifying what makes your drumming ‘you’ and how we can build on this.
Interpretation
We will cover musical interpretation and taste, look at drum solos, their overall stage performance and discuss kit arrangements.
We’ll consider your music taste and how your personality and style fits into this category, looking to elaborate on your subtleties.
Your interpretation to music will form part of your style. We’ll look into developing this, perhaps covering alternative styles and being creative with them.
We’ll also look into how your interpretation can dramatically change the overall feel to the music you play. We’ll investigate how you can develop your style with the bass line, adding or taking away different elements, playing with the ‘rules’ of drumming and of the genre.
Recording can be a nightmare but it can also be very exciting. We’ll discuss recording techniques, state of mind and frustrations, aiming to help you get the best out of the time.
The Drum Hut would also like to record you, free, so we can discuss your playing. You will also receive a free CD of the recording to keep.
You may want to be added to the Drummers Address Book on The Drum Hut website where other musicians could get in touch with you, should you be looking to jam, start a new band or join an existing band.
Drum Solos
Solos are fun, often creative and can be challenging. We’ll be looking at the components which make up a drum solo, look at new and interesting ways of playing a solo and developing solo technique.
We believe that music is about performing, as much as playing. Your tutor will work with you to identify and develop your performance technique in relation to your drumming style. This is great fun, creative and a real benefit to the overall enjoyment of watching a band.
This unit looks at providing an
introduction to drumming. At the end of this module, students will know how to set up, take down and maintain their kits, be confident at playing various 8 and 16 beat grooves, able to play
off - beats, adding drum fills, playing with dynamics, altering foot patterns and will appreciate how this may affect hand movements, as well as have an understanding of drum tablature (tab).
Aims
We invite students who are new to the drums, or who are returning to the drums after time-out to have a chat with their tutor about their aims and goals. It’s fun and informal, it gives us the chance to get to know you, and for you to get to know us.
We’ll write goals down so we know what we’re working towards.
Positioning & Warm-ups
We can begin to introduce you to the very basics of drumming. As trivial as it sounds, we’ll look at how to sit at the kit, correctly positioning your feet with the pedals and body with the kit, helping you avoid injury and prevent ‘bad’ habits developing later which may restrict your playing potential.
Correct seat and stick positions will allow you to achieve maximum control and speed of play later. We’ll look at the distance between you and the kit and where the drums need to be positioned in relation to you.
We’ll talk about the foot pedals, look at how to put the kit up, take it down, tune it, dampen it and maintain it. We can advise on the types of kits available if you don’t have one, where to get spares from and the types of skins and cymbals which are available to you.
We’ll then progress onto warm-up routines. These are very important, as they really do reduce injuries. After we’re warmed up, we’ll get playing!
Get playing
We'll begin looking at a drum beat and counting out where each drum needs to fall within the beat (i.e., snare, bass, hi-hat etc.)
When you’re confident in counting and playing the beat, we’ll explore other beats. Now it’s time to move on to 16 beat grooves and some basic drum fills, some cross-sticking and combining this with open style drumming. These elements are all really useful in marking a point within a song, like moving from verse to chorus and emphasising a particular part.
Drum Tab
Next up is drum tablature. Tab is useful for you to know and read, but won’t necessarily feature heavily in lessons.
After each lesson, your tutor will write down some points for you to work towards for your next lesson, along with comments from your lesson you've just had. We would also have recorded your lesson with the MP3 recorder we issue to every student, helping you to remember what we've covered during the lesson.
At the end of the first lesson, your tutor will hand over a folder which is yours to keep, with your goals, tutor comments and targets for the next lesson. We’ll add ideas, tips and tricks to your folder every lesson, so you should aim to bring it every lesson.
A personal lesson plan
Each lesson is tailored to the
specific needs of each student. Students may want to work towards a school concert, learn to play a track, learn new drums beats or fills. With a lesson plan students and parents can track their progress every lesson.
Recording of the lesson
Every lesson is recorded. The Drum Hut issues an MP3 recorder to each student, for free, so that they can listen back to what was taught during their lesson. We can also put music and practice drum loops on their player, helping them to progress quickly.
Free* studio recording
An amazing opportunity to be recorded using industry standard equipment. This is available to all our students. It's a great chance for students to showcase their playing, but also gives them a real insight into what goes on when working in a recording studio environment. *This facility involves booking in advance and may not be readily available.
Students added to drummers address book
As a way to help our students to get out there and play, we invite our students into our Drummers Address Book, for musicians looking for drummers throughout Dorset.
Home tuition
The Drum Hut teaches throughout Dorset and West Somerset. Lessons are mostly taught at the homes of students, which is an extremely popular service to parents who have young families. We aim to help parents by providing stress free, no hassle, reliable home drum tuition.
We also have drum sites based in Gillingham and Sherborne.
Lesson Features
Call 07743 160691
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How much are your drum lessons?
The first lesson is free! (It's your 'taster' lesson)
Individual lessons
Each lesson is £20
Group of 2
£10 per student
How to get started
It's really easy, just get in touch with us, either by phone or by e-mail and we'll take it from there. Contact us
What do I need?
All you need is a drum kit. If you don't have a drum kit, it may be possible for your tutor to bring one over for the druation of your lesson.
How long is a lesson?
A lesson is 40 minutes long. This doesn't include the time it takes to set up and take down the drum kit, if applicable.
Where do you cover?
The Drum Hut covers Dorset and West Somerset. Please get in touch for further details.
Can I have a group lesson?
Yes. There is a maximum of 2 students per lesson.
07743 160691
GET OUT THERE AND PLAY
Drum Tuition
